Hey Mister Radio Man: National Jukebox posts early song about broadcasting

Alas, Sammy’s mother has died, the song explains, and so when his father falls asleep, the boy turns to the device for solace:

Mister Radio Man

Tell my mammy to come back home

Won’t you do what you can?

For I’m so lonely . . .

You can find versions of the 1924 hit tune “Mister Radio Man” by going to the Library of Congress’ just launched, National Juke Box. One is performed by Lewis James. The other by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, (it’s an orchestral dance version). The LOC’s programmable site includes 10,000 acoustic recording hits released from 1901 through 1925 by the Victor Talking Machine Company.

The last five years of that output took place during the formative years of broadcasting. KDKA in Pittsburgh famously began in 1920. By 1927 there were at least 700 radio stations streaming AM content across the nation. No big surprise that some of those songs would be referential to radio.

And no surprise that at least one would feature a child trying to reach a lost parent via the technology. “Mister Radio Man” is reminiscent of “Hello Central, Give Me Heaven,” a 1901 song about a little girl trying to reach her mother via the telephone.

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About Matthew Lasar

Matthew Lasar is a co-founder of Radio Survivor and its business manager. He is the author of Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium (http://tinyurl.com/jr8uknk) and teaches history at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Likes: deejays, classical music, Disco, postpunk, cats, free school lunches. Dislikes: money, ideologies, claims that technology will fix everything. Follow him on twitter at @matthewlasar.